Production of fuel ethanol from cellulosic materials is a potentially attractive way to meet sustainability, energy security, and environmental goals. However, the high cost of processing using current technology has thus far prevented...

Many organisms recognize and respond to categories: predator, prey, rival, or juvenile. Organisms recognize these ecologically-important categories by assessing diverse sensory stimuli. A primary focus of my research has been understanding how...

Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and their associated cyclins are key regulators of cell cycle progression. Caenorhabditis elegans has two predicted A- type cyclins, encoded by the genes cya-1 and cya-2. Cyclin A has been shown to be required for...

Access control is a core component of any information-security strategy. Researchers have spent tremendous energy over the past forty years defining abstract access-control models and proving various properties about them. However, surprisingly...

Prion diseases are progressive disorders that affect the central nervous system leading to memory loss, personality changes, ataxia and neurodegeneration. In humans, these disorders include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, kuru and...

We have previously shown that the selective estrogen receptor modulator, Arzoxifene (Arz), and the rexinoid, LG100268 (268) synergistically prevent breast cancer in an ER+ breast cancer model. This study was designed to determine the mechanism of...

Temperature has powerful effects on all scales of biological organization from biochemical reactions to ecosystem processes. Despite the well-appreciated influence and thorough understanding of the physiological and population consequences of...

In utero exposure to maternal malnutrition is associated with increase offspring susceptibility to cardiometabolic and neuropsychiatric disease. Epigenetic mechanisms mediate, at least in part, fetal adaptations to adverse in utero environments...

The overarching goal of this thesis was two-fold. First, to determine if the effects of chronic anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) treatment on anxiety-like behaviors are sex-specific and second to determine how different environmental modulators...

Liver disease of different etiologies confers significant morbidity and mortality and hence it constitutes a major health concern worldwide. Stemming from a range of causes, such as viral, drug-induced, alcoholic, or autoimmune, the rate of...

Drosophila melanogaster is a model organism often used when studying the complex processes of neuronal signaling and neurodegeneration. The short life cycle, malleable genetics, amenability to in vivo electrophysiological assays and sensitivity to...

A hypothesis that chronic aflatoxin Bi- (AFBi) induced hepatotoxicity and the resulting compensatory cell proliferation are critical for the growth of preneoplastic lesions was investigated. A commonly utilized protocol which consists of 10 doses...

Most detailed studies of insect flight and dispersal have used long flying species as subjects. Little is known of the flight ecology of comparatively short flying species. This thesis reports the findings of a 4 year study of the flight behavior...

Research objective . Research suggests that home visiting services can have a significant impact on pregnancy outcomes, child health and development, parenting and maternal life course. The effect of home visiting on utilization of health services...

Nutrients play fundamental roles in biological systems, affecting plant growth and quality, community structure, and species interactions. Although the effects of nutrients on primary and secondary production have been well documented, their...

Medical imaging methods have become increasingly important in diagnosing diseases and assisting therapeutic treatment. In particular, early detection of breast cancer is considered as a critical factor in reducing the mortality rate of women....

Regulatory linkage between epibiotic organisms and their host zooplankton populations is one of the least understood topics in zooplankton biology, despite the likely importance of epibionts to pelagic communities. These laboratory studies with...

Sex determination in C. elegans leads to the development of sex-specific structures and contributes to the regulation of sexually dimorphic programmed cell death. A search for factors that regulate the sexually dimorphic cell death of the...

Cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2E1 is considered the sole CYP responsible for APAP bioactivation leading to hepatotoxicity. CYP2E1 is also considered the alcohol-inducible CYP and therefore, the sole CYP responsible for alcohol-mediated increases in APAP...